Efficiency of a biodigester septic tank in sewage treatment and agricultural reuse in forage palm cultivation

  • Ianca Carneiro de Carvalho Centro de Ciências Agrárias, Ambientais e Biológicas. Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia (UFRB), Rua Rui Barbosa, s/n, CEP: 44380-000, Cruz das Almas, BA, Brazil.
  • Patricia dos Santos Nascimento Departamento de Tecnologia. Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS), Avenida Transnordestina, s/n, CEP: 44036-900, Novo Horizonte, BA, Brazil.
  • Selma Cristina da Silva Centro de Ciências Exatas e Tecnológicas. Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia (UFRB), Rua Rui Barbosa, s/n, CEP: 44380-000, Cruz das Almas, BA, Brazil.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4136/ambi-agua.3105

Abstract

This study evaluated the efficiency of a biodigester septic tank (BST) in treating domestic sewage and investigated the effects of reusing treated effluents on forage cactus cultivation. The performance of the BST was observed through the physicochemical and microbiological parameters of the influents and effluents. Forage cactus irrigation was carried out with different proportions of treated domestic sewage effluent (TDWE) and rainwater (RWA): 0:100% (T1), 25:75% (T2), 50:50% (T3), 75:25% (T4), 100:0% (T5) (TDWE:RWA), and Tc (10% RWA). Soil analysis was performed before and after planting to verify the effect of the tested treatments on the soil. Biometric analyses of the crop were performed throughout the growing cycle, in addition to water response indices (WRI). The experimental design was completely randomized with three replicates. The BST demonstrated efficiency in treating domestic sewage, generating effluent of adequate quality for agricultural reuse. Treatment T5, with 100% treated effluent, may have caused nutritional imbalance, since the best crop development was observed in T4 (75% TDWE and 25% RWA), suggesting that dilution favored the agronomic performance of the forage cactus. Therefore, the results demonstrate the technical viability of the BST system effluent as an alternative source of water and nutritional input for forage cactus cultivation.

Keywords: agricultural reuse, cactus, effluent.

Published
18/11/2025
Issue
Vol. 20 (2025)
Section
Papers

Authors maintain the copyrights for their work. However, they grant rights of first publication to Ambiente e Agua - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Science. In compensation, the journal can transfer the copyrights, allowing non-commercial use of the article including the right of sending the article to other data bases or publication media. The journal uses the CC BY 4.0 license"